O-Negative: Extinction

by Hamish Cantillon

  Lieutenant Taylor sat down at Florence’s desk. “Then we’ll proceed anyway. You’ve seen my orders”.

  He raised an eyebrow at this. “You mean to say that if I say no you’re going to take your un winter condition trained men and trek halfway across Antarctica to the South Pole? This is classic Army FUBR.”

  Lieutenant Taylor shrugged his shoulders. “That’s about the size of it”.

  He slumped back in his chair. “Well if this isn’t turning into a pretty shitty day I don’t know what is. I wake up with a hangover Oliver Reed wouldn’t have been ashamed of, spend the day avoiding the station mare and then I’m told to either ‘volunteer’ for a decidedly dangerous, potentially life threatening mission or let a bunch of Royal Marines do what can only be referred to as a ‘Captain Oakes’ ”. He sighed.

  Lieutenant Taylor got up and put out his hand. “Welcome to the team… Captain…”

  Despite himself he reached out and shook Lieutenant Taylor’s hand. “It’s still Doctor Lieutenant. You’re the one who’s leading this mission. I’m just along for the ride”.

  Chapter 6 – JAVEIRA - June 2015

  The rain fell unexpectedly. Though the sky had been darkening for the last couple of hours no one had been prepared for its ferocity. There was a rush to find shelter in the malls and office buildings lining the broad ‘new’ Jeddah streets designed primarily for the automobile. The onset of heavy rain and the inability of the storm drains, which were often choked with rubbish, to dissipate the large pools forming on the sides of the roads had the effect of causing traffic in the effected lanes to swing out wildly to avoid the deep puddles. It hadn’t been raining for 5 minutes when she heard the all too familiar sound of an accident in the distance. She sighed. She knew this meant further traffic hold ups. It looked like her choices were to call Salem and wait in a traffic jam for several hours or simply embrace the rain and walk home to the apartment she shared with her cousin Rahmaniah.

  The apartment had been her cousin’s idea. Rahmaniah was the family rebel, the daughter of her mother’s younger sister Mayameen, who was herself somewhat of an ‘independent’ spirit. Her aunt Maya had been forced to marry an older and wealthier relative who had died suddenly, but not before impregnating Maya. Her aunt had been left a widow and a new mother in her early twenties. Of course with substantial assets and considerable income from her late husband’s estate she had received plenty of offers to remarry. But her aunt was no fool, she knew if she did so she’d have had to answer to her new husband. She’d therefore defied all convention and against the wishes of her family had bought a giant house on the outskirts of Jeddah and brought her daughter up on her own…with the help of a couple of Pilipino maids and her burly and not at all unhandsome Jordanian chauffeur Ahmed.

  Rahmaniah was the same age as Javeira and knowing that as an unmarried female she’d never be permitted to get an apartment on her own, even with such a progressive mother, she’d persuaded Javeira to go in with her on the idea. Technically as they were both unmarried they shouldn’t have been able to lease an apartment at all but with some special ‘facilitation’ payments provided by Maya they’d had no problems.

  Of course her father had almost had an apoplexy when she’d told him and had once again expressly forbidden her to do this but his ability to prevent her doing anything had diminished substantially from the day she’d told him she wasn’t going to marry Hassan Mahfouz. She hadn’t even said anything just turned away, walked to her room, packed a bag and moved out the same day. Her mother had spent the time it took her to pack a bag crying her eyes out and begging her not to fearing it ‘would ruin her reputation’.

  The move had been 9 months ago and though her father still hadn’t fully accepted the situation they had managed to retain a professional relationship. He knew he’d be a fool to dispense with her business acumen and Abdullah her twin brother had told her that after she’d left the house her mother had basically shouted her father down and told him in no uncertain terms, and using language hitherto unheard in the house, that she blamed him for Javeira moving out – the phrase ‘if you hadn’t tried to force her to marry that ugly son of a whore Mahfouz boy she’d still be at home and we wouldn’t be about to be the talk of the town’ being the deciding factor. Abdullah said he’d never seen his father so chastened and though their father had stormed off shortly afterwards being shouted at by his previously passive wife Abdullah revealed to Javeira that even Saudi men couldn’t win every battle.

  Of course a family compromise had eventually been worked out and though there was a fragility to the parent/daughter relationship they were at least back on speaking terms. The agreement had been that no more would be said about the ‘apartment’ or ‘marriage’ if Javeira agreed to ‘consider’ any suitors that her parents brought to her attention without prejudice; and if Salem, her second cousin on her father’s side, was allowed to move into the vacant apartment next door to hers and Rahmaniah’s. She hadn’t wanted to agree to this but knew she had to give ground somewhere for the sake of family unity. Salem had previously acted as her driver and as he was a largely inoffensive character she’d accepted this as the price for her freedom.

  Unfortunately or fortunately depending on who’s point of view you were looking at it from Rahmaniah had almost immediately got Salem drunk on illegal liquor and then had their Pilipino maid Lila seduce him. When he was awoken the next morning by Rahmaniah, lying naked next to Lila the maid, Rahmaniah had told him in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to keep his ‘shameful secret’ safe from Javeira’s father he would answer to her and no one else. Salem had literally begged Rahmaniah on his hands and knees not to say anything to her father, he was as aware as Javeira was of the apocryphal story of Musa and Layla.

  This meant that both she and Rahmaniah had pretty much free reign to do as they pleased with the added benefit of having a male Saudi to cover for them when they needed it. After the initial shock of being blackmailed by Rahmaniah Salem also found his life had actually improved substantially. Not only was he now living in a plush apartment in the most fashionable part of Jeddah but Javeira wasn’t a particularly tough task master, simply requiring him to drive her to and from the office each day and that was about it. In addition she’d provided him with the funds to invest in a small shop in the old town. It was probably this additional source of income above and beyond the small stipend her father paid him that bound him to her more than anything. Up until that point he’d been entirely dependent on the generosity of the Al Bajubair family. Now she’d given him an independent source of income he was to all extents and purposes a free man. Of course it didn’t hurt that Rahmaniah made a point of sending Lila round to his apartment at least once a week to ‘collect his washing’, a task that seemed to take somewhat longer than it might normally…

  As was wont in their somewhat hypocritical society they had found a balance which suited all of them yet also met the intangible social norms they as privileged Saudis were expected to conform to. More than anything she found that for perhaps the first time in her life she was truly content. It seemed as if her prayer to Hawwa had come true and for this she was extremely grateful. The only downside was the agreement to consider her parents ‘suitors’ but thankfully, and perhaps not unsurprisingly, given she’d moved out of the family home, these had been few and far between. Nevertheless there had still been enough to keep her on her toes thinking up reasons why she couldn’t marry the various bachelors invited to the family gatherings she had to attend. Ultimately she wanted to marry for love and whatever love was she didn’t feel she’d found it in any of the men her parents had put in front of her so far.

  Of course having their own flat and relative autonomy and freedom had made her, Rahmaniah and Salem extremely popular amongst their friends and associates. This was largely because of the gatherings they were now able to hold at their apartments. Her father had insisted that an adjoining inner door be constructed between Salem and the girls flat. Unbeknownst t
o him this meant that Salem could now quite appropriately invite his male friends round at the same time that she and Rahmaniah invited their female friends round. Perhaps less appropriately at an appointed time the inner door was then opened and young Saudi men and women were able to mingle freely without being under the watchful eyes of their respective parents. These more informal gatherings had the added benefit of being able to be conducted without the constraints of the much hated abayas that Saudi women had to wear when outside their own homes. She and Rahmaniah had instigated a strict policy that anyone visiting them (whether known or unknown to them) left their abaya at the door – no exceptions. She and Rahmaniah’s social standing may have decreased in the eyes of her parents’ generation but their standing had rocketed stratospherically amongst their own generation. As well as standing up for the rights of their friends to make their own life choices their gatherings were soon the most sought after invitations in town. She had had to instruct the post room and security in their building to stop sending up the gifts of chocolates, flowers, jewels, dresses etc. that she was now receiving on an almost daily basis. Inevitably these would be accompanied by a card from someone she barely knew or hadn’t spoken to since school or University with a phrase like ‘please keep me in mind for your next social function’.

  Given the unexpected success of these soirees and the significant numbers of ‘marital engagements’ that had followed she had been too much of a businesswoman to pass up the opportunity to not turn these gatherings into revenue generating opportunities. Utilising some of the family investment funds she controlled she’d set up a new ‘Event Management’ company and started similar social party arrangements in Riyadh, Madinah, Sultanah, Dammam, Taif and Tabuk. Originally she’d thought it would be difficult to find people like her and Rahmaniah but in the end it had been relatively straightforward. The demand was so great for the service they were offering and the social networks of their friends wide enough that they were able to find suitable Saudi male and female hostesses without too much difficulty.

  On the advice of Salem she had been careful to make sure that both the host and hostess’ they employed were from families from a relatively impoverished background. The chance to interact with well to do Saudis, increase their own social standing and be paid for the privilege was something the hosts truly valued. They were also more likely to do everything they could to avoid their activities coming to the attention of the local authorities. In fact in the first month of their new business venture this worst case scenario had occurred. Their initial Riyadh location, in a conservative area of town, a nosy neighbour and an indiscrete host (who had allowed music to be played too loud) resulted in the religious police being called. The police hadn’t acted immediately but bided their time and then undertaken a raid during the next gathering. All the participants had been fined and severely reprimanded. Luckily Salem had been used as the front man to lease the apartments and he was the one contacted by the religious police after the raid. In the end the police had ended up apologising to Salem for the trouble caused. He’d done a brilliant job in acting utterly outraged that “these apartments, which I rented out in good faith to Saudi Arabians from good families, have been used in this manner. I will be writing to their parents and asking for recompense for the slander this has brought on my name. Allah be praised that my poor father is no longer alive to hear of this”.

  She’d considered ending the business venture right there and then but Salem and Rahmaniah had insisted she continue. The basic cost model was simple, leases on the apartment, modest salaries for the hosts and hostesses and some food and soft drinks. Revenues came from a ‘recommended donations’ system. She’d set the price at a relatively high 600 Riyals to try to deter demand but in reality she could have charged pretty much what she wanted. Those that failed to make the ‘voluntary’ donation weren’t invited back to any future gatherings. The business was booming and the money was really beginning to roll in, to the extent that one day when she was at the office with her father he’d asked her about the new ‘Eventing’ business which was posting a 20% return on capital. She’d almost choked on her pomegranate sherbet when he went on to suggest that the new company might consider staging the annual shareholder board meeting.

  “Oh baba the company’s only just started and though it’s doing well its more about small business networking and seminars than staging events for large companies like our own – maybe next year if it’s still doing as well?”

  “Ok bint il-beled you know best but no need for you to hide your talents under a bushel, this has all the hallmarks of another successful enterprise. Let me know if you need anything”.

  Little did he know how successful. Even though she was scrupulously posting a 20% profit to the Bajubair holdings accounts (as the company’s cut for putting up the initial investment) she was also posting a further 50% of the cash based business to her own personal account. Salem and Rahmaniah were getting 10% each of this but basically she was well on her way to becoming a US dollar millionaire in her own right and she wasn’t even 25 yet. In fact this had meant taking a leaf out of her father’s book and start converting some of her funds into gold as she knew the authorities started looking more closely at personal bank accounts with more than 5 million riyals in them.

  Of course while she was setting up the new business and acting as the deputy head of her family’s conglomerate she didn’t exactly have an awfully lot of free time. The gatherings that Rahmaniah and Salem organised in their apartments were the only time for her to relax and do some of her own speed dating Saudi style. As a result of this she’d already met most of the bachelors that were subsequently introduced to her at family parties. Of course in this more formal setting both she and the bachelor guest made a show of introducing themselves and exchanging a few polite comments, but in fact already knew more about each other than the watching relatives suspected.

  The gathering at her apartment this evening was actually more of a business affair, hosts and hostesses from around the country who had been invited to Jeddah to swap stories and exchange best practice with regards to the events themselves. Salem would be giving a presentation about the best methods for keeping under the radar of the religious authorities and Javeira was looking forward to meeting her employees, most of whom she hadn’t yet met face to face.

  She’d made a conscious choice to recruit people based on recommendations from Salem and Rahmaniah, therefore keeping herself out of the spotlight. The less people who knew about her role the better. Salem had proved to be a surprising asset as he was an astute reader of people and having come from a poorer branch of a rich family knew exactly the sort of person who’d make an ideal host. Rahmaniah was also a skilled operator with regards to the women but had a tendency to pick ‘rebels’ when what Javeira was looking for was ‘trendsetters’ i.e. those who wanted to work largely within traditional boundaries. It was one of Rahmaniah’s hosts who’d brought the religious police down on them in Riyadh. After that Javeira had laid down strict procedures for the hosting of the gatherings. The provision of alcohol for example was prohibited and she’d imposed a strict ‘no use of bedrooms’ rule. Though it was unlikely, given the clientele, she still didn’t want the gatherings to become Saudi ‘knocking shops’. Similarly to prevent the events becoming an opportunity for Saudi men to pick up non-Saudi women she’d instigated a ‘Saudis’ only recommendation. Of course in reality there was some flexibility in the rules and it was not uncommon to find people bringing modest amounts of illegal alcohol with them to the gatherings. Similarly with Saudi Arabia filled with so many peoples from other Islamic nations it wasn’t always possible to ensure a 100% Saudi participation but the fact that there was such a recommendation in place set down a marker to the hosts and hostesses about what she was looking for from the events.

  _______________________________________________________________________

  By the time she reached the apartment she was soaked to the skin. The quick rain
shower had turned into an unusually prolonged downpour and she was beginning to regret her ‘free spirited’ decision. Rahmaniah gave a cry of astonishment when she saw her.

  “Javeira please tell me you did not just walk home in the rain?”

  She looked at her sodden reflection in the mirror “err yes I think I was hoping the rain would ease off somewhat”.

  “It’s a wonder people didn’t try to give you money – you look like one of those old women you see on the streets in Amman”.

  “I didn’t notice anyone looking at me, though it has to be said there weren’t that many people on the streets”.

  “Exactly they all had more sense. Right well you better get yourself a bath sharpish if you want to be ready for when the first guests arrive. There’s probably going to be about 30 people coming this evening. The only no shows are the hosts from Madinah. I think they double booked their own event on the same night. I despair sometimes. Anyway everyone else will be here though. Be exciting to meet your team hey?”

  “I’m looking forward to it. I hope there aren’t too many of your ‘moderniser friends’ amongst the women?” She said it with a smile but Rahmaniah knew what she was saying.

  “Oh Javi you won’t ever let me forget that mistake in Riyadh will you. I can assure you all the women I’ve recruited are as boring and uninteresting you”.